Few thought about the pencil production process.
It's time to find out how this happens.
The pencil goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days.

If you still look at all this from the side of a whole product line, then a complex, well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.
In order to see with our own eyes the process of making pencils, we go to the Moscow Krasin Factory. This is the oldest pencil production in Russia. The factory was founded in 1926 with government support.
The main task of the government was to eliminate illiteracy in the country, and for this it was necessary to make office supplies available. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Krasin's factory remained the only pencil manufacturer in the CIS with a full production cycle. This means that the factory produces everything - from lead to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil production process.
For the production of pencils, specially processed and stacked linden boards are delivered to the factory. But before they can be used, you need to make writing rods.

Let's move on to the workshop for making pencil rods. Writing rods are made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The preparation of the required mixture begins with such technological units, where clay is ground. The crushed clay is transported along a conveyor to the next production site.

In the next section, special mills are installed, where the clay is ground more finely and mixed with water.

Plants for preparing a mixture of clay and graphite. Here the mixture for future rods gets rid of impurities and prepares for further processing.

It should be noted that only natural substances are used in the production of slates, which makes the production environmentally friendly. Installation for pressing the mixture. From the obtained semi-finished products, rods are obtained. There is practically no waste from production, as they reuse it.

At this production site, the rods themselves are already received, but in order for them to fall into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out over them.

The very technology of obtaining the rods resembles extrusion. A carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.

After that, the blanks for writing rods are placed in a special container.

And dried in a closet for 16 hours.

The rods are then carefully sorted by hand.

This is what the bar sorting workstation looks like. This is a very difficult and painstaking job. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.

After sorting, the rods are calcined in a special cabinet. The annealing temperature ranges from 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius and directly affects the final properties of the rod. The hardness of the pencil depends on the temperature, which has 17 gradations - from 7H to 8V.

After annealing, the rods are filled with fat under special pressure and temperature. This is necessary to give them the necessary writing properties: intensity of a line, ease of sliding, quality of sharpening, ease of erasing with an eraser. Depending on the required hardness of the rod, you can use: salomas, confectionery fat or even beeswax and carnauba wax.

Output from the bar production area.

After that, the rods go to the assembly. On these machines, pencils are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.

The cutting part of the machine grinds grooves in the planks.

Planks automatically go into such a clip.

After that, on another machine, the rods are placed in pre-prepared planks.

After laying, the halves of the boards are glued together with PVA glue, and they are left to dry under a press. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself does not stick to the planks. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to be closed, a press is needed. The rod, on the other hand, will be held in the wood not due to glue, but due to the tension of the wooden shell (a specially created prestress in the pencil construction).

After drying, the workpiece is cut into separate pencils with special cutters.

The pencils are gradually sawn over several processing cycles.

The output is ready-made, but not colored pencils.

Already at this stage, the shape of the pencil is laid due to the type of profile of the cutting cutter.

Further, on special lines, the surface of the pencil is primed. When painting pencils, enamels made at the factory itself are used. These enamels are made from components safe for humans.

Line for painting pencils.

I think we have seen gift pencils painted with colorful stains many times in stores. It turns out that in order to color them like this, a whole specially developed technology is used. Here is a small snippet of the painting process.

When I visited the paint shop, I happened to see a batch of pencils for delivery to the government of the Russian Federation of a new sample. The tip of the pencil symbolizes our national flag. The pencils dry in special technological frames. The regularity of the rows looks very unusual and attractive.

After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches for shipment to the next areas of the factory.

It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils colored according to the proprietary technology of the plant. This is a very unusual sight.

Technological line for surface finishing.

Locker for storing stamps. It stores stamps for the entire range of products.

If necessary, pencils are sharpened on a special machine before packing. The photo shows an intermediate stage of sharpening. I was amazed at the speed of the machine. The pencils fell into the tray in a continuous stream. All personal unsuccessful attempts to sharpen pencils immediately came to mind. From these memories, this machine began to inspire even more respect.

The factory also produces such interesting oval-shaped pencils used in construction and repair.

Arrays of stacked pencils look very unusual and attractive. You won't see anything like this anywhere else.

Each of us from an early age, engaging in creativity, or in school lessons, came across such a subject as a pencil. More often than not, people treat it as something ordinary, as a simple and useful thing. But few people thought about how complicated the technological process of its production is.
By the way, during the production of a pencil, it goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days. If you still look at all this from the side of a whole product line, then a complex, well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.

In order to see with our own eyes the process of making pencils, we go to the Moscow Krasin Factory. This is the oldest pencil production in Russia. The factory was founded in 1926 with government support.

The main task of the government was to eliminate illiteracy in the country, and for this it was necessary to make office supplies available. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Krasin's factory remained the only pencil manufacturer in the CIS with a full production cycle. This means that the factory produces everything - from lead to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil production process.

For the production of pencils, specially processed and stacked linden boards are delivered to the factory. But before they are used, it is necessary to make writing rods. Let's go to the workshop for making pencil rods. Writing rods are made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The preparation of the required mixture begins with such technological units, where clay is ground. The crushed clay is transported along a conveyor to the next production site.

In the next section, special mills are installed, where the clay is more finely ground and mixed with water. Plants for preparing a mixture of clay and graphite. Here the mixture for future rods gets rid of impurities and prepares for further processing.
It should be noted that only natural substances are used in the production of slates, which makes the production environmentally friendly. Installation for pressing the mixture. From the obtained semi-finished products, rods are obtained. There is practically no waste from production, as they reuse it.

In this production area, the rods themselves are already received, but in order for them to fall into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out over them.
The very technology of obtaining the rods resembles extrusion. A carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.

After that, the blanks for writing rods are placed in a special container.
Special containers

And dried in a closet for 16 hours.
The rods are then carefully sorted by hand.
This is what the bar sorting workstation looks like. This is a very difficult and painstaking job. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.
After sorting, the rods are calcined in a special cabinet. The annealing temperature ranges from 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius and directly affects the final properties of the rod. The hardness of the pencil depends on the temperature, which has 17 gradations - from 7H to 8V.

After annealing, the rods are filled with fat under special pressure and temperature. This is necessary to give them the necessary writing properties: intensity of a line, ease of sliding, quality of sharpening, ease of erasing with an eraser. Depending on the required hardness of the rod, you can use: salomas, confectionery fat or even beeswax and carnauba wax.
Output from the bar production area.
After that, the rods go to the assembly. On these machines, pencils are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.
The cutting part of the machine grinds grooves in the planks.

Planks automatically go into such a clip.
After that, on another machine, the rods are placed in pre-prepared planks.
After laying, the halves of the boards are glued together with PVA glue, and they are left to dry under a press. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself does not stick to the planks. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to be closed, a press is needed. The rod, on the other hand, will be held in the wood not due to glue, but due to the tension of the wooden shell (a specially created prestress in the pencil construction).

After drying, the workpiece is cut into separate pencils with special cutters.
The pencils are gradually sawn over several processing cycles.
The output is ready-made, but not colored pencils.
Already at this stage, the shape of the pencil is laid due to the type of profile of the cutting cutter.

Further, on special lines, the surface of the pencil is primed. When painting pencils, enamels made at the factory itself are used. These enamels are made from components safe for humans. Line for painting pencils.
I think we have seen gift pencils painted with colorful stains many times in stores. It turns out that in order to color them like this, a whole specially developed technology is used. Here is a small snippet of the painting process.
When I visited the paint shop, I happened to see a batch of pencils for delivery to the government of the Russian Federation of a new sample. The tip of the pencil symbolizes our national flag. The pencils dry in special technological frames. The regularity of the rows looks very unusual and attractive.

After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches to be shipped to the following factory sites
It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils colored according to the proprietary technology of the plant. This is a very unusual sight.
Then, on a special machine, the final mechanical operation is carried out - end-face processing. Technological line for surface finishing.
Further, on a special machine, marking is applied to the pencil using a special stamp, which is applied to each pencil through a foil tape.
Locker for storing stamps. It stores stamps for the entire range of products.
If necessary, pencils are sharpened on a special machine before packing. The photo shows an intermediate stage of sharpening.
I was amazed at the speed of the machine. The pencils fell into the tray in a continuous stream. All personal unsuccessful attempts to sharpen pencils immediately came to mind. From these memories, this machine began to inspire even more respect.
The factory also produces such interesting oval-shaped pencils used in construction and repair.

Arrays of stacked pencils look very unusual and attractive. You won't see anything like this anywhere else.
In the packaging area, pencils are sorted and packaged by hand. There is a special atmosphere here. People work quietly and silently. Many employees have over 40 years of continuous work experience in the factory.

The factory has its own equipped laboratory in which products are tested throughout the entire production cycle and new production technologies are tested. The picture shows Amsler's device for determining the resistance at the fracture of the writing rods.

Before leaving, I walked into a room with display stands of the factory's products. The factory emblem evokes some nostalgia. After all, these pencils are familiar to each of us from childhood.
The factory produces several lines of products. Professional pencil series for painters, decorators and designers.
Samples of pencils supplied to the government of the Russian Federation. For the design of pencils, a drawing was chosen to match the color of standard malachite desktop instruments of employees of the Russian government. But besides this, they have other differences from ordinary pencils: firstly, their shape is made with maximum consideration for the ergonomics of an adult's hand, and in addition, they use a special rod of the "lumograph" type for notes in the margins and in the diary, it is not smeared by hand , but erases well with an eraser without damaging the paper.
Engineering pencils:
Original souvenir products of the factory.

(b) As a bonus, and for comparison, I offer you a couple of stories from the Discovery TV channel about the production of pencils they have. (/ b)

The fixies have already told you about the history of the ballpoint pen in the cartoon.

Now let's talk about another subject that we use just as often - a pencil. Find out
what they used to draw in the old days, and how they helped us find ... sheep as material for our pencils. Let's take a look at a pencil factory, figure out how a stick-rod gets inside a wooden case, why pencils are called soft and hard - and much more.

Once upon a time, there were no such pencils as now. Until the 16th century, artists painted with "silver pencil". A thin silver wire was soldered to the handle or put into a special case - a leather tube. When the wire was erased, the skin at the end of the tube was cut off and the "silver pencil" became shorter. True, it was impossible to erase what was written with such a pencil - and the artist, who made the wrong stroke, had to redraw everything anew. And after a while, the silvery lines or letters turned brown.
There was also a lead pencil - a thin stick made of lead. But the lead stick leaves a gray, not very clear mark on the paper. In addition, lead is harmful to health. In those days, however, few people knew about this, and schoolchildren often wrote with lead pencils.

And those pencils that we use have a core made of graphite. This is a special kind of coal. For the first time, graphite was discovered ... by shepherds from the English county of Cumberland. They noticed that when white sheep rub their sides against the stones of local rocks, their wool turns black.

Learning about the "dirty rocks", the British first decided that the Cumberland rocks also contain lead. And they tried to use it for the production of pencils. Craftsmen manually turned rods out of this "lead", which were then wrapped with braid. The work was not easy - one master could make only two or three pencils per day. The British treasured "Cumberland lead" very much; it was forbidden to export it from the British Isles on pain of death. But the pencils turned out to be very good - soon the whole of Europe learned about them, and the material for the rods was secretly exported from England.

In the German city of Nuremberg, a factory was opened in 1761, where the "lead" rods began to be enclosed in a wooden shell - and the pencil acquired almost exactly the same appearance as we know it now. However, it was only at the end of the eighteenth century that chemical scientists figured out that there was no lead in these rods, but they were made of a special mineral. It was then that he was given the name "graphite" - from the Greek word grafo - I write.

But the pure graphite rods, while giving a nice, clear line, were still too soft. In 1790, the Viennese craftsman Josef Hardmut mixed graphite dust with clay and water and burned this mixture in an oven. Then he founded the Koh-i-Noor pencil business - many of you still have pencils from this company at home. And at about the same time in France, the scientist-inventor Nicolas-Jacques Conte found his own way of producing pencil rods. He was also an artist, so he knew very well what a good pencil should be. Conte came up with the idea of \u200b\u200bmaking a mixture of graphite, clay, starch, soot and water for the rods. By adding more or less clay, the scientist found out that you can make the rods harder to draw thin and light lines, or softer - then the lines turned out darker and thicker. The more clay you add, the harder the core.

Take a set of simple pencils - each of them indicates how hard it is. Hard pencils are marked with the Russian letter T (“hard”) or the Latin “N” (“hard” is an English word that also means “hard”). And on soft ones - Russian M (soft) or Latin B (“black” - “black” - as we remember, a softer rod gives a darker, black line). To the hardest and softest rods, a number is added - 2M, 3T. There are also pencils of medium hardness - they write TM (or HB) - "hard-soft".

Well, well, how does the graphite rod get inside the wooden case? Let's try a look at the pencil factory! We will see that clay, graphite and wood do not immediately turn into pencil. Their journey through the factory from car to car is a whole chain of transformations.

First you need to finely grind the clay and graphite. Then mix with glue so that it binds the graphite particles together, does not let them crumble. And again grind into powder, from which you get graphite sticks. But in the powder between the particles of graphite and clay, specks or air bubbles remain. If you don't get rid of them, the stick will come out brittle - the pencil will have to be repaired every now and then. To expel air bubbles, the powder is strongly squeezed with a special press. It turns out round thick columns - blanks. These blanks are pushed through a sieve with very small holes. The grains remain on the sieve, and tiny particles of graphite and clay pass through the holes - a thin black vermicelli is obtained. They again make blanks from it - but already clean, without any litter, without air bubbles. These blanks are turned into pencils.

To make a thin rod-stick out of a plump pig, you need to push it through a tiny hole.
The blank squeezes through it, loses weight and stretches into a thin, long thread. The thread is cut into pieces. But these pieces are soft, they are not suitable for a pencil yet. They must be dried and baked in an oven to harden them. And then saturate them with fat so that they write clearly, not faintly.

Finally we got the same graphite stick that sits inside the pencil. Now we need it to be in a wooden case.

A pencil case can be made from different types of wood (and now they are often made from plastic) - although the best pencils are obtained from Siberian cedar. The machine cuts a piece of wood into identical planks. To prevent the future pencil from breaking and making it easier to repair, the boards are soaked in paraffin. This is done in special devices - autoclaves. All resins are removed from the boards with a couple, and the wood under the influence of steam changes its color to pinkish-brownish. Then the boards are thoroughly dried.

After that, in each plank, another machine makes six tracks - for six graphite sticks. The graphite sticks are placed on the board in the paths prepared for them. And on top they are closed with another plate of the same kind - like a lid. And both boards are glued together. If you look very closely at the finished pencil, you can find the place where the two halves are glued.

See how six pencils are made from a cedar plank:
1 - grooves are made in both boards; 2 - graphite sticks are inserted into the grooves, and the boards are glued; 3 - the board went through the machine; it can be seen that it will soon turn into six pencils; 4 - and here pencils appeared instead of boards.

It turns out at once six fused pencils. Another machine cuts the board into six hexagonal sticks. Inside each stick is a graphite rod. This is a ready-made pencil, but not very beautiful yet - unpainted, rough. To get prettier, he still has to go to machines that will make him smooth and cover with shiny colored varnish or paint - always in several layers.

And then the pencil will go to the last machine, where a brand will be applied to it - name, drawing, designation of hardness. Now the pencil is completely ready - he was born, got a name and can go from the factory to the store, and from the store to your home.

This is how simple pencils are made. How do you get colored ones? Instead of graphite, they use chalk with a special glue (kaolin) and a coloring agent instead of graphite. By the way, the mixture for the rods of colored pencils is fired in the oven once, but the graphite rods for ordinary pencils are fired twice.


That's how much work it takes to make a regular pencil! So take care of your pencils, do not rush to throw them away, even when they become very short.

Will the lead break or not? Today we will try to understand the technological process of pencil production and find out what will happen to the lead?

Although it is called simple, it is quite a technological product. To make one pencil, over 80 production operations within 11 days. The quality and price of the final product largely depends on what material and how it is produced.

Briefly, the process of making a pencil is as follows.

1. Obtaining a bar
2. The block is sawn into planks
3. The boards are soaked in wax (paraffin)
4. Depressions are made in the boards
5. The lead is placed in the recesses
6. Placed on top of another board
7. Office of pencils
8. Pencil painting
9. The pencil has a metal rim
10. An elastic band is inserted into the metal rim

Wood for the manufacture of a pencil shell must have a number of specific properties:

• to be light, soft and durable, not to break or crumble during the process of making pencils;
• have the same resistance to cutting the fibers both along and across, should not delaminate;
• the cut when cutting with a sharp knife should be smooth, shiny, the shavings should curl, not chip or break;
• the wood must be low hygroscopic, i.e. should not absorb moisture.

All these qualities correspond to the Virginia juniper, which grows in the USA. The closest in its properties and structure is cedar and linden wood, but for use in pencil production, it must first be subjected to a special treatment - waxing (i.e. refining). The boards are sawn into bars, the bars are trimmed to the length of a pencil with allowances for machining and shrinkage, and then the bars are sawn into planks on a multi-saw machine. After that, the boards are impregnated with paraffin - this procedure improves the mechanical and chino properties of the future pencil. All resins are removed from the planks with a couple, and the wood legnin, when interacting with the steam, changes its color to pinkish-brownish. Then the boards are thoroughly dried. After drying, they are sorted - cracked planks, planks sawn by the wrong fiber, etc. are rejected. Paraffin-enriched and dried planks are sorted and calibrated - they are covered with grooves (grooves) for rods.

Graphite rod made from a mixture of clay and graphite. Clay is pre-cleaned. To do this, it is crushed in special crushers, then mixed with warm water in special mills. During processing, the clay diluted in water is poured with liquid glass, which, settling, takes out all impurities from it - pebbles, twigs, sand, etc. Then, according to a special recipe, graphite is added to the clay, and each gradation has its own recipe. The mixture is mixed with a binder, aparatin, cooked from starch. For the manufacture of rods, a rod mass of a certain temperature and humidity is required. In no case should the mixture be allowed to dry out, otherwise it will be like a stone.

Kneaded dough of clay and graphite with a screw press pressed for molding through special equipment - rollers with three different clearances. This is done to crush and grind the mass, averaging moisture by volume and remove air bubbles. The thickness of the dough layer is at first 1 mm, with repeated processing 0.5 mm, then 0.25 mm. Then the dough is passed through a die with holes, forming the so-called "noodles". "Noodles" are formed into cylinders, and from them a rod of the required diameter and length is pressed through a diamond die on the press. The rods are finally dried in special drying ovens - rotating continuously for 16 hours. After this process, the moisture content of the rod is approximately 0.5%.

Then rods are calcined in an oven. Firing is necessary in order to burn the binder in the rod and sinter the clay to form the framework. The degree of hardness (gradation) of a pencil from 6M to 7T depends on the ratio of clay, temperature and duration of firing and the composition of the fatliquoring bath. Depending on the gradation of the rod, firing is performed at a temperature of 800 to 1200 degrees.

After firing, fatliquoring operation: The pores formed after the binder is burned out are filled with fat, wax or stearin under pressure at a certain temperature. The choice of substance for fatliquoring depends on the grade (hardness) of the rod. For soft pencils, confectionery fat is used, for hard ones - wax. Intermediate values \u200b\u200bof hardness, for example TM, are achieved by fatty stearin. Colored pencils are made from a mixture of pigments, fillers, fatty substances and a binder.

Next comes assembly process. The rods are placed in the grooves of the prepared board and covered with the second board. The boards are glued together with PVA glue, but the rod itself is not glued to the board, but is held by the tension of the board. The diameter of the rod is slightly larger than the diameter of the groove, therefore it is very important to correctly squeeze the boards in a special mechanism, where the future pencils are glued. For each standard size of the pencil, its own pressure indicator for pressing is determined so as not to break the rod.

In addition, so that n prevent the lead from breaking in the event of a drop of a pencil, many manufacturers use the so-called SV-sizing technology. If the pencil is dropped, the lead can only break at the sharpened tip, not inside the body.

Further the ends of the glued boards are processed - trimmed, glue residues removed. On the milling line, the blocks are divided into pencils. The shape of the future pencil depends on the shape of the knives - it will turn out round, faceted or oval. "Newborn" pencils are sent on a conveyor belt for sorting.

Finishing pencil surfaces is carried out by extrusion (broaching), and the end is finished by dipping. Extrusion is the process of passing a pencil through a priming machine. At the end of the conveyor, the pencil is turned over so that the next coat of paint or varnish is applied from the other end. This ensures an even coverage.

It is well known that less than 7 layers when painting with pencils, it is not allowed, otherwise the tree will be covered with burrs. Companies that are more serious about the quality of their products usually start with 12 layers. Very expensive items can be painted over up to 18 times, sometimes up to 20. Then the pencil acquires an unsurpassed glossiness and a downright mirror surface. However, many people think that more than 18 layers is already overkill. Dark colors are applied 5 times with paint and 4 times with varnish, light colors - 7 times with paint and 4 times with varnish. The sharpening of the pencils is done automatically, and all pencils are marked at the factory. The packaging of sharpened pencils is done by hand; about 15 thousand pencils can be packaged in one full shift.

So, if the pencil was glued using a special SV-technology, then rest assured, it will not break.

* Calculations use average data for Russia

There are two main types of pencils - plain and colored. A simple pencil has a graphite lead and writes, depending on the hardness of the graphite, in gray - from light to almost black. Simple pencils differ in the hardness of the lead, which is indicated by the letters M (or B in the English version) - soft and T (or H) - hard. Normal - a hard-soft pencil is marked with the letters TM or NI (sometimes it is also denoted by the letter F). This marking is applied to the body of the pencil. If the pencil is not marked in any way, it means that it is hard-soft. Colored pencils also come in several types: classic colored (one-sided and double-sided), wax, pastel, watercolor, etc.

Despite the fact that a graphite pencil is popularly called "simple", the technology of its production turns out to be much more complicated than the technology for making colored pencils, since, unlike the latter, it requires additional firing.

The lead of pencils is made of white clay - kaolin and graphite, and the core of colored pencils is made of kaolin with colored pigments. Moreover, the pigments themselves can be both synthetic and natural. The lead, which contains natural ingredients, is more convenient to use, provides a soft application, gives bright saturated colors that do not fade even under direct exposure to sunlight. Special emulsions are added to the lead of watercolor pencils, which dissolve on contact with water, creating a uniform layer of paint on the paper - the so-called watercolor effect.

Pastel pencils are made by pressing natural pigments and linseed oil. And the composition of the lead of wax pencils as an astringent includes, as the name implies, wax. It creates a firm hold on the lead, leaves a wide oily mark and provides better glide on paper.

The production process of pencils in a wood casing is fully automated and consists of several stages: the manufacture of a lead, boards, the connection of components and the processing of blanks. First of all, the lead for future pencils is made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The proportions of the components at the stage of mixing graphite and clay determine the hardness of the future lead. The more graphite is added to the lead, the softer its structure will be. If kaolin predominates in the lead, the pencil will be harder.

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The clay is pre-cleaned. For this, the raw material is first crushed in crushers, then mixed with warm water in special mills. Clay, diluted in water, is poured with liquid glass to get rid of impurities - sand, etc. Then graphite is added to the clay, according to the recipe, and a binder, which is cooked from starch.

The core mass must be of a certain temperature and humidity. The slightest deviation from the norm will lead to spoilage of raw materials. For example, if the mixture dries, it will become too hard, which can cause equipment damage. Thoroughly kneaded "dough" of graphite and clay goes into a screw press. There it is formed through rollers with three different gaps. As a result of this procedure, the mass is crushed, it becomes homogeneous, air bubbles and excess moisture are removed from it. The thickness of the dough gradually decreases with each reprocessing - from 1 mm to 0.25 mm.

Then the mass is passed through a die with holes, after which it turns into the so-called "noodles". It is formed into cylinders, from which a rod of the required length and diameter is squeezed out on a press. The rods need to be dried. This is done in drying ovens with continuous rotation for 15-16 hours. The moisture content of the finished rod should not exceed 0.5%. After drying, the rods are calcined in special crucibles in an oven. During the firing process, the binder is burned in the rod, and the sintered clay forms the frame of the lead.

In addition to the clay ratio, the degree of hardness of the finished pencil is also influenced by the temperature and duration of firing, as well as the components that make up the so-called fatliquoring bath. Lead firing, depending on the desired gradation, is carried out at a temperature of 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius. After firing, the rods are placed in a special fatliquoring bath. As a result of this operation, the pores that formed in the graphite after the binder is burned out are filled with fat, stearin or wax under pressure at a certain temperature.

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Sometimes edible and confectionery fats, as well as additional binders (for example, based on starch), can be used as raw materials. The choice of substance that is used for fatliquoring depends on the hardness of the rod. For example, confectionery fat is used for soft-lead pencils, and wax is used for hard ones. Stearin for fatliquoring is used for the manufacture of leads of intermediate hardness (for example, hard-soft). Large diameter rods are produced on vertical masonry presses.

Rods for colored pencils are made in a slightly different way. They include pigments, fillers, binders and fatty substances. Clay (kaolin) is the main raw material. Pigments, astringents and, in some cases, fatty additives are added to it. Each manufacturer has its own recipe for making slates, which is kept in great secret. Many factories use other additives, including colorants, natural fillers, waxes, cellulose-based binders.

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After mixing all the components, the mixture is extruded using a press, and rods of the required diameter are obtained at the exit. They are cut into lengths and then dried at room temperature. As we mentioned above, only graphite rods are hardened. Refills for colored pencils do not undergo heat treatment, since under the influence of high temperature, color pigments are destroyed (when it comes to components of natural origin) or significantly change color (this applies, first of all, to inorganic components).

Two different techniques can be used in the fat addition phase, which produces a color trail and holds the colored particles on the paper: so-called cold or hot “dissection”. In cold preparation, fat is added to the mixture during mixing. As a rule, this technology is used in the production of inexpensive medium-quality pencils, the lead of which consists of organic pigments, which, in turn, are contraindicated in high temperatures.

Hot preparation is carried out immediately after drying the rods. As a result of this procedure, the leads are soaked in hot fat. This method is used in the production of quality art (especially watercolor) pencils. The composition of such a bath is one of the main trade secrets of the factory, but, in any case, it contains high quality organic fats (for example, coconut or sunflower oil).

All colored pencils are conventionally subdivided into school (high-quality, inexpensive and cheap) and art pencils. The latter are distinguished by the highest quality and good coloring properties. But, in any case, regardless of the price category, the rods of both simple and colored pencils must go through several stages of quality control, if, of course, the manufacturing company cares about its reputation.

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Simultaneously with the production of rods, pencil cases are manufactured. The pencil case is made from various types of wood, which determines the quality of the finished product. For example, alder and poplar wood is considered to be of low quality. In order to achieve a satisfactory cabinet quality, this material requires expensive processing that small producers who choose such wood cannot afford. Linden wood is considered satisfactory in quality. It is most commonly used to make inexpensive school pencils. The wood of pine, jelutong and cedar (Siberian and Californian) is considered high quality, expensive and is used for the production of special artistic pencils.

The process of making a wooden pencil case consists of several operations. First of all, you need ready-made blocks of wood. They are trimmed along the length of future pencils with allowances for machining and shrinkage. Wooden blanks are sawn into separate planks on a multi-saw machine and paraffin-impregnated in autoclaves to improve the mechanical properties of the finished product. The thickness of each plank is half the thickness of the finished product. Steam treatment removes the resin from the planks, and the wood becomes light brown with a pink tint.

Then the boards are dried in "wells", where they are folded with a machine. The used method of laying allows to increase the area of \u200b\u200bthe board that comes into contact with the hot steam. On the one hand, this optimizes the production process, and on the other hand, it allows maximum moisture removal from raw materials. "Wells" are rearranged into drying rooms, where they are kept for 72 hours. Then the boards are removed and sorted. During sorting, scrap is removed (cracked workpieces, incorrectly sawn boards, etc.). The boards impregnated with various compounds and dried are sorted and sized.

On each board, grooves or grooves are made for the lead, and then PVA glue is applied on it with an even layer. After that, the pencil is assembled: a lead is inserted into one of the two boards, and then it is covered with a second board. In this case, the rod itself is not glued to the board, but is held by the tightness of the "shell".

Since the diameter of the rod is slightly larger than the diameter of the groove, the correct compression of the board in a special device - a clamp, where pencils are glued is of great importance. According to the production technology, for pencils of a certain size and type, a different pressure indicator is used for pressing. Deviation from the recommended indicators leads to a large number of rejects: pencils simply break under pressure.

The resulting blocks go to the milling line, where they are divided into pencils using knives. The type of knife determines the shape of the future pencil - faceted, oval or round. Then, almost finished pencils are sent for sorting on a conveyor belt. Sorters check each pencil to identify and remove defective products.

The workpieces obtained as a result of crimping are sawn along the length of the pencil, leveled, sanded, primed and coated with paint and varnish. The surface of the pencil is opened with paint and varnish by drawing (extrusion), and its ends are dipped. In the first case, the pencil is passed through a primer. First, it moves in one direction while applying varnish or paint, and then at the other end of the conveyor it turns over and comes back. This helps to create an even and even coverage.

Dark colored pencils are covered with paint in at least five layers, and varnish - in four. The pencil is painted in light colors in at least seven layers of paint and four varnishes. But ideally, in order for the surface of the pencil to be even, without smudges and "burrs", the total number of layers of varnish should be at least seven to eight (the more layers, the more expensive the finished product). The maximum number of layers is 18.

For coloring the ends of pencils, a so-called dipping machine is used. With its help, the frame with crayons is gently lowered into the paint tank. But in some cases paint and varnish are not required. For example, pencils with a cedar body go on sale without additional wood processing. It is believed that the very texture of the wood is quite beautiful and does not require painting and varnishing. The hardness mark is applied to the pencil by hot impact stamping using colored foil tape.

Pencils are sold in two types - sharpened and unsharpened. Products of the first type are packed in boxes exclusively by hand, and the second - manually and using special automatic and semi-automatic equipment. On a semi-automatic machine, you can pack about 15 thousand pencils per shift, on an automatic machine - more than ten times more. The machines pack boxes of six or twelve pencils each. The productivity of the equipment for packing pencils averages 350-550 packages per hour.

So, the quality and, therefore, the cost of the finished product is influenced by the exact observance of the technological process during the production of the lead and the body and during the assembly. The pencil shaft should be located exactly in the center of the body. If the centering of the lead is disturbed, then when sharpening it will be cut unevenly and it will be impossible to draw with such a pencil.

The type of wood used is also important for sharpening a pencil. Poor quality material crumbles, and linden, pine or cedar wood gives even neat shavings when sharpening the product. High-quality double sizing of the lead is of great importance. It protects the rod from deformation inside the housing. Such a pencil is not afraid of falling even from a great height. The Rule of Eight Layers not only ensures the aesthetic appearance of alder, linden or poplar products, but also protects against splinters. And, of course, the safety of the materials used in production is of particular importance - from wood to paint and varnish. In particular, only safe water-based varnish is used for the production of pencils.

The total cost of the necessary equipment for the production of pencils and crayons starts at 2.5 million rubles. This is how much the cheapest used line will cost (most likely incomplete). Add to this the cost of renting production premises (at least 50 square meters for a small production), payment of utility bills, wages to employees.

To work in the production of pencils, the following specialists will be needed: a plank calibrator, sharpener of pencils, rods and sticks, a pencil and rod picker, a pencil dyer, a printing machine operator, an operator of an automatic white pencil production line, a graphite rod burner, an operator of automatic pencil assembly, an operator of a rolling line , operator of dispersion mixers for the preparation of core mass, pencil finisher on an automatic machine, pencil block press, core press, pencil board impregnator, core impregnator, pencil pulp grinder, rod breaker, rod cutter, mixer, sorter in the production of pencils, rod dryer, binder , rod grinder, pencil stamper. Of course, the exact number and types of specialists that will be required to work in a factory depends on the size of the production, the assortment, the technologies used and the budget.

Finished products are sold, as a rule, through wholesale companies. The produced batches of pencils are too large, so it is impractical to work with retail chains directly for manufacturers.

The exact payback period for the pencil business is difficult to name. First of all, they depend on the volume of production and the initial start-up capital. In addition, during the first time, all profits will most likely be invested in promoting their products on the market, since competition among manufacturers of simple and crayon pencils is very high (especially among Western manufacturers, with which domestic factories cannot yet compete in the quality of produced products). According to some data, the minimum payback period is from 2-3 years (for a small enterprise).

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